Valve Announces Steam Machines – The SteamBox is Coming as a Prototype

Part two of Valve’s three part announcement of living room products took place, and this time it was “Steam Machines” that were unveiled. Well, the concept anyway.

There wasn’t a whole lot of new information revealed, though. They pretty much just confirmed that the third party Steam Boxes hinted at last year will be coming out, and Valve will have their own prototype that will be made available to a very limited number of beta testers “soon”.

How to be a Steam Machine Beta Tester

If you want to be one of the 300 people who will receive a prototype box, you must go on this “quest”:

Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility

Join the Steam Universe community group

Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions

Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven’t already)

Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven’t already)

Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode

If you follow those steps, you can be one of the 270 people randomly selected as a tester. 30 testers will be manually selected by Valve from a list of people who were especially helpful in previous beta test programs.

That’s about all the information there is regarding the Steam Machine. Next up is the third announcement, which will almost certainly be a controller based on this patent filed by Valve. It looks like it will have interchangeable parts, allowing you to use any combination you prefer of thumb sticks, cross pads, buttons, and even a trackball.

Valve Steam Machine FAQ

When can I buy one?!
Beginning in 2014, there will be multiple SteamOS machines to choose from, made by different manufacturers.

I’m pretty happy with my PC Gaming setup, do I have to buy a new piece of hardware now?
No. Everything that we’ve been doing on Steam for the last 10 years will continue to move forward.

If you guys are delivering an OS to hardware manufacturers, why is Valve also making its own box?
We’re conducting a beta of the overall Steam living-room experience, so we needed to build prototype hardware on which to run tests.

At Valve we always rely on real-world testing as part of our design process. The specific machine we’re testing is designed for users who want the most control possible over their hardware. Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.

How will you choose the 300 beta participants?
A small number of users (30 or less) will be chosen based on their past community contributions and beta participation. The remainder will be chosen at random from the eligible pool.

Should I create lots of Steam accounts to increase my chances of getting selected?
No, that won’t work.

What are the specs of the Valve prototype?
We’ll tell you more about it soon. Remember, there will ultimately be several boxes to choose from, with an array of specifications, price, and performance.

Where’s a picture of it? How big is it?
We promise we’ll tell you more about it soon.

When will the prototypes ship?
This year.

Will beta testers be allowed to share info about their experience and post pictures and opinions online?
Yes, that really is the whole point. The input from testers should come in many forms: bug reports, forum posts, concept art, 3D prints, haikus, and also very publicly stated opinions.

Will I be able to build my own box to run SteamOS?
Yes.

Can I hack this box? Run another OS? Change the hardware? Install my own software? Use it to build a robot?
Sure.

Can I download the OS to try it out?
You will be able to download it (including the source code, if you’re into that) but not yet.

If I’m not in the beta, how can I help and contribute feedback?
The Steam Universe Group is where feedback is being collected. Most areas of the group will remain open for participation by all Steam users. Some may be limited to beta participants only, but there will be plenty of ways to contribute feedback for everyone.

What games will be available during the beta?
The nearly 3,000 games on Steam. Hundreds already running natively on the SteamOS, with more to come. The rest will work seamlessly via in-home streaming.

Am I going to be using a mouse and a keyboard in the living-room?
If you want. But Steam and SteamOS work well with gamepads, too. Stay tuned, though – we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.

About HCW

hardCOREware.net was founded in 1999 by the sole owner and author, Carl Nelson.
The site's mission is and always has been to offer brutally honest coverage of the latest hardware and gadgets with
strictly no BS. In the last 10 years HCW has grown to cover Video Games from the
unique perspective of a hardware & tech junkie.